Common Ground
by LolaAnn
Summary: Dawn and Sam both attend Stanford and discover they both also have ties to the supernatural. Sam/Dawn. Oneshot for an lj prompt fill.


**A/N: **Another livejournal prompt fill

**Prompt:** Sam/Dawn, please! It'd be interesting to see Stanford!Fic with both of them going there and then discovering they both have ties to the supernatural. I don't want fluffy mcfluff (can't really see it with these two, you know?)

Thanks to QueenofCamelot of giving me the idea of using Sam/Dawn's overprotective older sibling issues as a starting place. Also thanks to NoturBaby for dropping everything and giving me a quick beta to meet the lj com's rules.

This is probably fluffier than the prompter wanted, but my muse wasn't feeling too angsty.

Still don't own Supernatural or Buffy and I'm still not getting paid.

* * *

Sam second-guessed himself for the fiftieth time that day. What the hell was he doing? He'd gone to college to get away from hunting and now here he was skulking across campus to do recon in a damn mausoleum of all places. He should have been working on his Psych 101 paper that was due on Friday, but no, he'd stumbled on a mystery and he couldn't let it go. He'd always thought that getting away from Dean and Dad would put the kibosh on any hunting-related curiosity. Apparently not.

A nearly fatal accident had occurred on the night of the annual Halloween bash known as the 'Mausoleum Party' because it was always held at the on-campus mausoleum. A guy was nearly strangled to death and had to spend a couple of days in the hospital. The official story was that he was drunk and goofing around by climbing on top of one of the sphinx statues that guarded the mausoleum. Supposedly, dude fell and snagged the toga he was wearing, which slipped up around his neck and essentially acted as a noose. It wasn't really a farfetched story, but Sam had heard some rumors that made him curious.

The victim had told some friends that he'd seen an unfamiliar and extremely good looking woman who had asked him some weird question. When he made some smartass and most likely pervy comment, she went "apeshit" on him and not only had she tried to strangle him, she'd also bitten him on the shoulder. Sam confirmed the story by interviewing the guy for the school paper. He technically had absolutely no affiliation with the campus press, but dude didn't need to know that.

His first instinct had been to look for a ghost. It was a mausoleum, after all. However, only three people were entombed there: the founder, his wife, and their son for whom Stanford was named. None seemed like likely suspects, mostly because they'd all been dead since the late 1800's or early 1900's and in all those years, no similar incidents had occurred. Something else was happening here, so he decided it was probably best to start at the scene of the crime and see if anything looked suspicious.

Sam had expected to have the place to himself, so he was surprised when he spotted the pretty girl from his Psych class strolling around like she was site seeing or something. He'd never really spoken to her because she sat on the other side of the classroom, but he knew her name was Dawn. She was kind of hard not to notice.

"Hi…uh, Dawn right?" he asked when she turned and saw him approaching. He noticed that she looked a little guilty, like she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't, but she turned a bright smile on him once she'd recovered from her surprise.

"Yeah, that's me. And you… uh… you're Sam. We have Psych together."

"Yeah, we do," he agreed with a nod (the girl really was cute). "Don't you have a paper to write?" he teased.

She raised a brow at him and grinned. "You ought to know. Besides, I'm working on it. I'm just looking for…" she paused and looked around the area. "Inspiration," she concluded. "I need some good old inspiration."

"From a mausoleum? For your paper on Sigmund Freud and the origins of psychoanalysis?"

"Kinda weird, huh?"

"A little. But I guess psychoanalysis is a pretty deathly depressing subject."

"Exactly! You're sooo right," Dawn agreed a little too enthusiastically. "Um, is that why you're here?"

"No, I…" Sam scrambled for a plausible excuse. "I lost my... uh, watch here. At the Halloween party. Thought it might still be around. I know it's a longshot, but it was a family heirloom."

"Well, that stinks," Dawn frowned, then she paused for a moment before continuing with a strange light in her eyes. "So… you were at the party, huh? Did you see anything? You know, like that accident? I've heard some pretty wiggy rumors flying around."

Sam looked at her curiously for a second before answering with a shrug, "Nah, I left kinda early. Halloween's not really my thing."

"Really? Wow! Halloween is like my favorite holiday. It's the safest night of the year, you know."

"No kidding? How'd you come up with that little statistic?"

Dawn laughed nervously. "Dunno… just a guess. I've been known to make things up. I'm a liar… a horrible fabricator of completely unsupportable statistics… it's a problem."

Sam chuckled and decided it wouldn't hurt to take a chance and flirt a little. He was supposed to be starting a new life after all. "That does sound like a problem, but at least you can admit it. Now you can take the next step and get help. Maybe you should consult our trusty psych text?"

Dawn giggled and winked at him. If Sam didn't know better, he'd swear she was flirting back. It was the same expression he'd seen on girls thousands of times before, but it was almost always directed at his brother instead of at him.

"I'll try that," she said as she chewed on her bottom lip. "And if I get stuck, maybe you can uh… give me some tips or something? I heard you've got the highest grades in the class."

"I'd be glad to help," he assured her.

Dawn clapped her hands together and bounced a little in her step. "Yay! There's hope for me now." She immediately looked a little embarrassed at her outburst and ducked her head shyly. "Well, guess I better let you look for your watch. Think I've soaked up enough inspiration. I'm gonna go write that paper now. See you in class," she added with a small wave.

Sam smiled as he watched her walk away. There was something really hot, yet kind of goofy about this girl. He liked it. She was easy to talk to and he was now almost convinced that she had been flirting with him. Maybe he did have the highest grade in the class, but she couldn't have been too far behind. In fact, they may even be tied for the top spot for all he knew. It wasn't like he was obsessed or anything, but he did know a little bit about her. One of his friends had gone out with her roommate a few times and Sam may have asked a few questions about Dawn and had learned that she was also here on a full-ride scholarship. You either had to be really smart or an athlete to get one of those and she didn't play any sports as far as he knew. The point was, she didn't need any help or tips from him in the academic department.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dawn knew she should call her sister, because things were definitely starting to veer into big bad territory. Rationally, she realized she had no business taking this thing on by herself, but she was so tired of being considered a glorified benchwarmer. Usually, Buffy preferred that she stay out of these things entirely and she knew if she called her, her sister would head straight to Palo Alto and take complete control of the situation, and that would spell the end of her independent college life. Once Buffy found out there were ancient Greek demons roaming around campus, things would never be the same. Dawn may as well pack it up and move on back to Cleveland. And nope, that wasn't happening. _Little Dawnie_ was going to handle this one herself and hopefully she wouldn't get killed in the process, because that would seriously put an end to any hopes she had of getting to know Sam Winchester better.

Sam was so totally the cutest guy in the world, hands down. She'd been drooling over his dimples since the first day of class. Plus, he was tall and seemed really well built. She'd pay good money to see him with his shirt off. And even his goofy, floppy hair was adorable. Problem was, she'd never had an excuse to talk to him or the nerve or imagination to come up with one. So, she had to keep herself alive now that she'd finally made first contact. She'd just have to be extra careful when she went back to the mausoleum tonight, because if she didn't die or get arrested for defacing campus property, she was going to make scoring a date with Sam Winchester her number one priority.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Asshats!" Sam exclaimed as he sat in front of his laptop. His roommate looked up at him and Sam mumbled something about politics, which seemed to satisfy the guy, because he went back to studying his biology notes.

Sam shook his head as he returned to poring over the web page on ancient Greek mythology. He was doing so, because when he'd walked around to the back of the mausoleum he'd spotted two sphinx statues that were a little different than the ones he was used to seeing. Unlike the two at the main entrance, these were clearly female and didn't have the Egyptian style that he was familiar with. Then he'd noticed some graffiti on one the statues. There were some symbols and some Greek letters that were probably some frat boy's idea of a joke. It was a real funny joke too. The symbols were ΦίԐ which was Greek for Phix, the spirit of the Greek demon of destruction and bad luck, also known as _the sphinx_. She was the female demon famous in mythology for guarding the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes. Anyone who tried to enter was asked a riddle and if they failed to answer correctly, she strangled and devoured them, which explained the victim's bite mark.

Sam looked away from the screen and picked up his phone. His fingers hovered over the buttons before he, once again, laid it aside. Part of him desperately wanted to call Dean. He knew his brother would come, even if he was on the other side of the country. Hell, he'd drive all night if he had to. There was no question about that. Dean would do anything for him, all he had to do was ask. But then, his brother would start ordering him around and making snide comments about him pretending to be Joe College, and Sam would get pissed and they'd get in a fight. And from there on out, Dean and his dad would be keeping much closer tabs on him and eventually he'd get sucked right back into the world he was so desperate to get away from. No, Sam had to handle this one on his own. He had to learn to stand on his own two feet and not feel like he always had to run to his big brother every time something went south. Maybe if he learned how to be his own man, he and Dean could be more like equals and they could even be close again. But some things had to change before that could happen. He had to learn to be Sam and not _Sammy_.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dawn walked steadily toward the mausoleum until she heard some grunting noises up ahead. For a second she almost left, because she was afraid some kinky undergrad horndogs were getting amorous in the crypt. From what she'd overheard about Spike and her sister, she so seriously did NOT want to be witness to _anything_ of that nature. She loved both of them, but that didn't mean she wanted to see something that might give her a mental picture of their formerly twisted sex life. But, she finally decided that her Hellmouth upbringing was just giving her weird ideas again and continued on her way. She was glad she did too, because up ahead was her crush, Sam Winchester, and he was fighting with what looked like an ancient Greek goddess of some sort. He was giving it all he had too, but he was clearly on the losing side of the battle.

"I said NIGHT AND DAY!" he yelled irritably as he rolled away from the woman. Dawn was momentarily mesmerized by his grace and fighting skills. That was something she hadn't expected and it was sexy as hell. Then she shook herself and realized that 'night and day' was the correct answer to one of the standard riddles asked by the sphinx, which was: _There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the sisters?_

Without taking the time to wonder why Sam was here at midnight or why he seemed to be damn good at answering riddles, Dawn ran forward with the iron rod she'd scrounged up earlier. According to the lore (as told by the great Google) this demon could be killed by iron.

She needed to move, because even though Sam was holding his own extremely well, this lady was a demon and she was obviously stronger than him. It finally caught him and threw him up against the wall of the mausoleum and began strangling him. Luckily for Dawn, it seemed to be completely focused on Sam and didn't appear to even notice her. She raised the rod and quite easily snuck up behind the thing.

"Cheater!" she yelled as she rammed the rod through the creature's back. "Night and day is totally the right answer."

The thing turned and stared at her in awe for a moment before disappearing in a puff of smoke. With the demon no longer between them, Dawn was now face-to-face with Sam.

"Hi," she said awkwardly.

"Uhh… hi," he said as he blinked back at her.

Dawn glanced around and saw a duffel bag lying nearby and beside it was an iron rod that was almost identical to the one she'd just used to slay the demon.

Unexpectedly, a slow smile began to spread across her face and even more unexpectedly, Sam returned it. It was kind of like a revelation. She'd wanted to get away from demons and monsters and live a normal life, but she'd also felt her knowledge of that world kept her from truly fitting in outside of it. It was like she always had to hide a part of herself. But, obviously, Sam knew some things about that world too, and she guessed that he just might be in the same boat as her. Suddenly she didn't feel so alone anymore or like such a freak.

"You wanna go have coffee?" she asked confidently. "Or maybe grab a pizza?"

He flashed her those dimples that made her go all melty inside and brushed off his jeans before replying. "Definitely. Coffee sounds perfect."


End file.
